The right way to dominate women
By 
Picking up on Franklin Foer’s article about Trump.
On its face, Donald Trump’s hateful musings about women and his boastful claims of sexual dominance should be reason alone to drive him from polite society and certainly to blockade him from the West Wing.
Leaving aside how one defines polite society when dealing with Republicans – maybe the polite ones put the babies’ bones beside the plate instead of chucking them at the servants? And acknowledging that it is the setting of Trump’s comments that potentially puts him beyond the pale, this is yet another example of Trump doing what the rest of the GOP does, only louder. And not megaphone v. dog whistle louder. More like air horn from two feet away v. air horn from two yards away.
Consider Gov. Kasich, who wound up being cast as Mr. Reasonable Republican Candidate, not that it did him much good. There’s a man who knows the correct way to express one’s misogyny and assert sexual dominance over women is to mention women as little as possible. And be sneaky.
Since entering office in January 2011, John Kasich, Ohio’s governor and now a GOP presidential hopeful, has signed every abortion and women’s reproductive health provision that has landed on his desk. In four and a half years he has enacted 16 legislative proposals related to family planning funding and abortion access across the state. Although anti-abortion provisions are not limited to the Buckeye State — a July count from the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights advocacy group, showed that 31 states have enacted a total of 282 abortion restrictions since January 2011 — Ohio stands out for the rate at which it’s adopting this legislation. The measures have altered when, where and by whom a pregnancy can be terminated in the state. And although Ohio is seen as a wild success story for anti-abortion advocates, the details of Kasich’s hard-line stance are often obscured. As governor he concealed his administration’s role in the creation of several anti-abortion measures, and now he is viewed as one of the most moderate candidates in a GOP race that tips far to the right.
Once the stage is set by a few words about the Sanctity of Life, Christian Principles or even Balancing the Budget, other misogynists, their enablers and the Guild of Useful Idiots, Hand Wringers & Well Actuallizers will get to work, et Robert est votre oncle, a discussion that should be about the inherent violence of denying women control of their bodies will be heavily diluted by discussions about everything else.
That’s why when Trump (again) bellowed the parts Republicans say out loud by suggesting women who get an abortion ought to be punished, the press claimed this was contrary to standard conservative doctrine, even though that is the opposite of true.
In addition to the case of Purvi Patel who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for terminating an unwanted pregnancy, anti-abortion doctrine calls for the punishment of all women, with additional punishment for those who get pregnant when they don’t want to be. But instead of saying “All women should be sub-citizens and their bodies placed under the control of the state,” the well-mannered misogynist says “We must protect the innocent!” and burps up some anti-science about fetal pain.
If women must be mentioned, kinder, gentler sexual domination calls for making it clear that women are morons who need the protective arm of the state around their necks at all times. (Otherwise they’ll be lured into health clinics by signs promising free brow threading and chocolates and tricked into having abortions.) In his pivot, T-Rump showed everyone how its done.
If abortion were disallowed, he said in a statement, “the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman.”
“The woman is a victim in this case, as is the life in her womb,” he continued.
And that’s one way to do misogyny.
Another way is the ever popular Oppression Switcheroo.
“They’ve already taken $90 million worth of ads,” he said. “And their ads are all woman-oriented. You know she is playing the women’s card… She’s going: Did you know that Donald Trump raised his voice when speaking to a woman? Oh, I’m sorry.”
“I mean. All of the men, we’re petrified to speak to women anymore. We may raise our voice,” he said. “You know what? The women get it better than we do folks. They get it better than we do. If she didn’t play that card, she has nothing.”
